Through the first season of Road to UFC, no more Koreans entered the UFC.
On February 28 (Korean time)온라인바카라, the UFC announced that it had signed regular contracts with seven Road to UFC participants for the 2022 season.
UFC, the world’s No. 1 mixed martial arts organization, launched Road to UFC last year, an Asian prospect contest that gives the winner of a tournament in each weight category a chance to enter.
The 2022 Road to UFC ▲ Flyweight (-57kg) ▲ Bantamweight (-61kg) ▲ Featherweight (-66kg) ▲ Lightweight (-70kg) held a quarterfinal tournament.
Among Korean fighters, fighters of the same age, born in 1995, Lee Jung-young (featherweight) and Park Hyeon-seong (flyweight) took the top spot. Choi Seung-guk (27) failed to surpass Park Hyeon-seong and ended up in second place.
Last season, Road to UFC was rumored to be able to sign an official UFC contract just by going to the tournament finals. The UFC brought in two runners-up, lightweight Jeka Saragi (Indonesia) and bantamweight Toshiomi Kazama (Japan), but did not give a chance to featherweight Lee Yi (China) and flyweight Choi Seung-guk.
2022 Road to UFC also participated in non-tournament weight classes through five one-match matches. Light heavyweight (-93kg) Zhang Mingyang (China) won a single fight and became the main character to advance to the UFC.
The door to the UFC was not opened to the other four players who defeated their opponents in a one-match road to UFC last year, including welterweight (-77kg) Kim Han-seul (33).
The 2023 Road to UFC kicks off on May 27th. The ‘four weight class tournaments and the rest of the weight class one match’ is the same as last year. The final is scheduled for the fourth quarter (October-December).